During assembly of a typical hard disk drive, a breather filter is adhered to a component of the disk drive enclosure (i.e. the disk drive base or the disk drive cover) before being put into the disk drive. A leak test is then typically done to determine if the breather filter properly adhered to the disk drive base or the disk drive cover. This may be necessary because, the assembled disk drive may be leak tested afterwards in a way that depends upon an assumption that the interface between breather filter and the disk drive enclosure is leak free (which it might not be). Hence, there is a need in the art for a disk drive design and/or assembly method that enables practical and simultaneous leak testing of all potential leak paths from the disk drive enclosure, including the breather filter interface with the disk drive enclosure.
Also, during assembly of a typical hard disk drive, the disk drive cover may be positioned and attached to the disk drive base after the breather filter is adhered to the disk drive cover. During this assembly step, there is an increased risk of interference and damaging contact between the breather filter and more fragile components of the disk drive, such as a head suspension, etc. Enhancing the precision of the disk drive cover install process may help reduce this risk, but doing that may undesirably increase the cost and duration of the assembly step. Hence, there is a need in the art for a disk drive design and/or assembly method that may reduce the cost, duration, and/or risk of damage associated with top cover assembly.
After assembly, a significant percentage of assembled disk drives must be disassembled to repair or replace an internal component, followed by reassembly, in a process known as disk drive “rework.” Disk drive rework typically requires removal and replacement of the disk drive top cover. Moreover, disk drive rework may also require removal and replacement of the breather filter, for example to permit removal of another component and/or if the breather filter itself or its installation is faulty. In conventional disk drives the adherence or attachment of the breather filter to the disk drive enclosure may complicate the disk drive rework process. Hence, there is a need in the art for a disk drive design and/or assembly method that may help simplify the disk drive rework process, for example by facilitating clean and practical removal and replacement of the disk drive top cover and/or the breather filter.